ISLAMABAD: Abdul Qadir Patel recently stated that the government has decided to begin an investigation into the Pakistan Medical Commission's (PMC's) illegalities and irregularities during the previous government's tenure.
The health minister Qadir Patel told a press conference that, according to media sources, the PMC administration had signed an illegal testing contract, which was also a massive swindle.
Illegal testing contract by PMC
"First, they awarded a contract to the auditor of the same organisation, and then the organisation's registration was made later after the contract. We want to move their cases to NAB as there is no record of many fake medical doctors who claimed themselves doctors."
Golden Handshake Scheme
He said that the PMC also introduced the forced 'golden handshake scheme' for employees, under which, on the one hand, they made many employees jobless while, on the other hand, they started giving jobs on heavy salaries to their blue-eyed people besides stopping the pension of 30 families.
No NLE in PMDC Bill 2022
The minister announced that now medical students will not further face irrelevant exam burdens like the high-percentage NLE tests, which are unfair and unjustifiable to the medical students who already had to pass many tests like MBBS admission or MBBS's various stages tests etc. "We don't want to create hurdles for our brilliant students, making them under stress."
According to Qadir Patel, the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council Bill 2022 was passed by the National Assembly recently, with the goal of reforming the PMDC to make it a democratic, autonomous, and powerful body capable of producing professional doctors to serve the country.
Meanwhile, he hoped the Senate would soon pass this bill.
He said this legislation was necessary as membership of the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) had been given mostly to non-medical professionals and irrelevant people making policies for medical and dental professionals.
"One could imagine the outcome if medical policies-making tasks are assigned to the irrelevant professionals."
He said that the PMC Act, a black law in the country's history, had been repealed by the National Assembly as it was not well-thought-out and would not be acceptable. "It is time to restore PMDC with reforms to make it a democratic, independent, and powerful body that can produce professional doctors who can work for the country."
He said that there were many facts behind the passing of this PMC Act in the previous government's tenure. "We want to investigate all such media reports on the issue of PMC."
He said that, unfortunately, there was a state within a state as the 'free-hand' policy was given to the management of the PMC by the past government. "No one was here to ask anything on the issues like appointing anyone on heavy salary, closing of any medical college without any reason, or imposing fines."
He added that everything happened based on personal liking and disliking as they had established a board. Unfortunately, many board members were either irrelevant to the post, or there was a case of conflict of interest.
PMC and MDCAT
He said that the PMC had raised the fees and established a central testing system under the Medical and Dental College Admission Test (MDCAT). They intentionally increased the passing percentage, making it impossible for many Pakistani students to pass this test.
"They played a dirty game and illegally passed many students, which is the worst example of favouritism and nepotism," he added.
He said that 55 per cent of seats from Sindh remained vacant while 16,000 students had to get admission abroad, resulting in the loss of billions to the national exchequer. The management of the PMC also remained involved in illegal appointments besides other illegalities.
He said that as there was no equal representation of provinces in the PMC, now equal share was given in the current bill, including Gilgit-Baltistan, besides representation to the private and public medical universities and colleges.
Fake Departments in PMC
He said that many fake departments were established, and the health system was run through a Facebook account from the USA during the tenure of the past government. He added a family member of the former Prime Minister was running the affairs of the ministry of health through the internet.
He added several members they appointed were foreign nationals like many were living in foreign countries. He added the same is the case with the National Institute of Health members, who mostly lived in foreign countries like Canada, the USA, etc., and issued directions from there.
